An interview with popularSTAND editor Glen Wilson
“So yes, we’re very inconsistent, but to be honest what’s hampering our play-off challenge more is the fact that we’re not all that good at football”
Tuesday 28 February 2023
Dear County fans, Stopfordians, and any Donny Rovers supporters joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Tuesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.
Regular readers will know that our pre-match stuff usually comes on Thursday and Friday. But I thought I’d do things a little different this week as A) this piece from popularSTAND editor Glen Wilson is too good to just sit in my inbox gathering cobwebs, and B) I’m sure Dave Challinor is trying to get the Barrow defeat out of our system as quickly as possible by focusing on Saturday’s game, so in that spirit we’ll do the same.
Today’s edition is sponsored by Thorneycroft Solicitors. A big thank you to Mark, Natasha and all the team.
Enjoy today’s issue.
Des Junior
Three wins and three defeats for Donny in February. Are you a little too inconsistent to challenge for the play-offs?
We drew Danny Schofield’s opening game as manager back in October, and haven’t drawn any of the 18 games since. It’s as if Schofield got that first taste of a ‘one-pointer’ and decided that draws absolutely were not for him. It’s like being a fan of an NHL team. So yes, we’re very inconsistent, but to be honest what’s hampering our play-off challenge more is the fact that we’re not all that good at football.
How’s our old mate Tommy Rowe getting on at Donny?
I’d forgotten he played for County. He’s on the cusp of his 200th league appearance for Rovers over two spells, but this second one is less impressive than his first. However, to be fair to him he’s been hampered by injury and by managers shoehorning him into any gap we have in the starting line-up; he’s only got centre-forward and goalkeeper left to play for us and he’s got the full positional set.
And James Brown?
He’s impressed since he arrived, he’s really looked like he wants to get up and do his thing, like he wants to get into it you know, like a sex machine.
What’s your best memory following Donny?
Can I get away with choosing a decade as a best memory? Because I’m going to. The years from 1999 to 2010 were largely an absolute joy; we got our club back from Ken Richardson, rose from the Conference to the Championship, and competed in the latter playing some wonderful football, plus won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (pre ‘B’ team cheapening of it) and had a brilliant League Cup run to boot. There can be no greater satisfaction than turning up at the huge stadiums of recently Premier League sides and watching your little hometown club play them off the park, and we did that repeatedly; a feeling capped off by beating Leeds United (a club our town had haemorrhaged so many glory-hunting supporters to) at Wembley.
And the worst?
The 2011-12 season, when the then board panicked, and chucked all of the above away, sacked Sean O’Driscoll, and effectively turned the club over to agent Willie McKay for his ‘experiment’ involving big name players who very clearly did not give two shits about the team or the town. Within two years we’d gone from the club’s players all chipping in to fund the wage of a young player so he could be kept on rather than released, to Habib Beye not bothering with training and flying in for matches from his home in Marseille. It was gut-wrenching to watch.
You’ve not been back to the Championship since John Ryan stepped down. Is it going to take some pretty serious investment to get back up there again?
It’s worth pointing out that John Ryan’s financial investment was only really enough to get us from the Conference up to League One. To make it to the Championship, even 15 years ago, Ryan recognised that greater financial input was needed and he brought on board Dick Watson (sadly now deceased) and Terry Bramall (still at the helm) to help make that step up. Since Watson’s passing Bramall has sought to make the club sustainable rather than chuck money at it; a commendable effort in the greater scheme of things, but one which has seen us drop to our current level, to much current frustration among supporters.
I think, yes, for any club of our size - and your size if you don’t feel we’re in the same bracket - it will take serious investment to become a second tier side, much more so than it did when we went up in 2008. There’s always the chance that should you get in League One you can have a good season and make the leap - like Burton and Wycombe have done in recent years, and as we came close to doing again in 2019 - but staying up is a whole different prospect. There are so many other clubs with much greater resources to draw on, in terms of finance, crowds, parachute payments etc, that unless you’ve had a sizable cash injection you’re just not going to compete. The best most of us can hope for is to be Rotherham - and as a Doncaster fan I don’t use those words lightly - bouncing up and down between the second and third tiers for eternity.
Do you miss Belle Vue at all?
Every. Single. Day. I grew up as a football fan on Belle Vue’s Pop Stand terrace and the daft humour of it kept me coming back every other Saturday much more than the football. It’s hard to talk about it without drifting off into a world of Ron Manager-esque cliche to be honest so why fight it… the smell of the fried onions and cigarettes, the relentless mocking of opposition full-backs who’d made the fateful mistake of doing something vaguely noticeable, the stupid songs, the haze on the pitch during those big nights under the lights… marvellous. Of course it wouldn’t be at all suitable for football circa 2023, but then practicality isn’t the point of nostalgia is it? I’d go back there in a heartbeat, without a care for how much it would piss off the person whose house now sits on what was the terrace when I trample their dahlias at ten to three on a Saturday.
Best Rovers XI from players that you’ve seen?
OK, so this isn’t the best XI I could pick, but they’re probably the XI that I’ve loved watching most in each of their respective positions over the last 25 years. Andy Warrington; James O’Connor, Stephen Roberts, Barry Miller, Gareth Roberts; James Coppinger, Brian Stock, Paul Green, Michael McIndoe; Billy Sharp, and John Marquis. Sean O’Driscoll in charge, and then a subs bench consisting purely of cult heroes because why not? Grab a bib, and pull up a pew Mustapha Dumbuya, Leo Fortune-West, Tim Ryan, Mark Albrighton, John Doolan, Gregg Blundell and Herbie Kane.
popularSTAND is one of the few paper fanzines still going. Give us the lowdown.
Aye so popularSTAND was formed towards the end of 1997-98. There were already a number of print fanzines connected to Doncaster Rovers at that point, but the founders of popularSTAND felt that the existing ones were being too soft on the people destroying the club. Thankfully Rovers survived, and whilst the other zines fell away popularSTAND carried on.
I started writing for it in about 2000, and have been editor since 2011. I’ve kept it going because I believe it’s important that there is a platform – independent of Rovers and other fan groups – through which fans can continue to hold the club and the people running it to account. Also, in an age of often hysterical immediate online reaction, print offers a medium which naturally lends itself to more considered viewpoints.
We’ve been not-for-profit throughout my editorship so any money we make beyond costs goes to good causes in Doncaster. In that time we’ve given away well over £10,000, which is some effort considering the ‘zine is still priced at £1, as it was when we started. Though we’ve adapted this to a ‘minimum price’ so if people want to pay more they can, but we stay affordable to anyone. Oh and we’ve won Fanzine of the Year twice over the years too, so we must be doing something right.
What are your thoughts on Stockport County?
Largely indifferent. Nothing personal. There are a handful of football clubs I love, some I’m fond of, some I can’t stand, but the vast majority elicit absolutely no feeling whatsoever, and you’re very much stuffed into that overflowing pigeonhole. I was glad you got yourselves back in the Football League, and I’ve sympathy that you were the only other professional football club to employ Mark Weaver – albeit in a role more befitting his talents – but beyond that you’re only really getting a shrug of disinterest from me.
What’s your prediction for Saturday’s game?
I’m expecting a defeat, so the only question really is by how many. Hopefully it’s in the ballpark of unlucky and unfortunate, rather than “F*** sake, I could’ve done so much more with my day”. Oh and Kyle Knoyle is absolutely nailed on to score isn’t he?
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Good & Bad
A number of our readers reflect on February.
👍 Good 👍
Starting to exercise once again.
County in the play-off places.
Days getting longer.
County winning five games.
Starting a new job.
Stand-up comedy.
Signs of spring coming quickly after January went on forever.
Getting your computer fixed.
👎 Bad 👎
Starting to exercise once again due to having a heart attack.
The police and the media in the Nicola Bulley investigation.
Losing at Barrow.
The cricket.
The government, all of it, every day.
Sorting out Ashes tickets before realising you’re away.
Shameless politicians not owning their fuck-ups.
Never mind Google or Yell.com, we’ve got you covered
STOP! That got your attention, didn’t it? Just a quick one… I’d hazard a guess that at some point in February, all of our readers will use Google or Yell.com at some point looking for a particular product or service. But before you do, please have a quick look at our own directory to see if we have what you’re looking for. A number of great businesses support The Scarf My Father Wore, allowing us to publish fresh content every day, so let’s send a few enquiries their way in return.
Click here to have a look at all the businesses in our directory.
Today in SK
⚽️ Arsenal are well placed to take City’s Premier League crown off them this season. Hopefully Bristol City can dump them out of the FA Cup as well tonight. The game at Ashton Gate will be on the big screens at Bask. 8pm.
🍻 Going out for a beer tonight? You can get two bottles of Budweiser for £6 at the Dog & Partridge (Buxton Road, Great Moor).
Photo of the day
Stockport Plaza
Have you watched the new ITV drama Nolly recently? Helena Bonham Carter filmed a number of scenes at our town’s iconic theatre.